noun:

• small festival on the eve of the main festival (esp. of the Gion festival) ➜ 宵宮

noun:

• Acanthurus (type genus of surgeonfishes and tangs in the family Acanthuridae which have a pair of sharp spines on either side of the base of the tail)

noun:

• wealth and military strength of a country; "rich country, strong army": a slogan from the Meiji era referring to the government's goals for the country - four character idiom

noun / ~の noun / adjectival noun:

• middle way; (golden) mean; moderation; middle path

noun:

• the Doctrine of the Mean (one of the Four Books) ➜ 四書

noun:

• world of tathata; "the pure and absolute truth of the tathata is as wide as the sea" [figurative] - Buddhism term

noun:

• three-part joke, where the first two parts are similar and mundane, while the third is the punchline (e.g. How do you get to my place? Go down to the corner, turn left, and get lost.); rule of three (in comedy writing) ➜ 落ち【おち】

noun / ~の noun:

• far and away the best; the very best; cream of the crop; crème de la crème; decisive lead; commanding lead - from 断然 + トップ - abbreviation - slang

noun:

• construction of a new shrine and transfer of the enshrined object from the old to the new, occurring at a regular, preordained time

noun:

• Yoshino period (Japan's Northern and Southern Courts period, esp. from the viewpoint of the legitimacy of the Southern Court, 1336-1392 CE) - obscure term ➜ 南北朝時代

noun:

• Yoshino period (Japan's Northern and Southern Courts period, esp. from the viewpoint of the legitimacy of the Southern Court, 1336-1392 CE) - obscure term ➜ 南北朝時代

noun:

• Ten Bulls (ten stages of the herding of an ox, used as an analogy for training the mind on the path to enlightenment) - Buddhism term

noun:

• Buddha triad; image of a Buddha attended by two Bodhisattvas ［さんぞん］ - Buddhism term
• The Three Jewels; Buddha, the teachings of Buddha, and the community of monks and nuns ［さんぞん］ - Buddhism term ➜ 三宝
• head and shoulders (stock price, etc. chart pattern) ［さんぞん］ ➜ 三尊天井
• the three people one must esteem: master, father, teacher

noun:

• letters (characters) indicating the end of a movie (The End, Fin, etc.) - From English "end mark"
• indication of the end (of something)

noun:

• swallowing a great amount of tea or medicine
• tea prepared for the New Year with the first water of the year - abbreviation ➜ 大服茶

noun:

• recognition and guarantee, by the shogunate, of ownership of the inherited estate of a samurai who pledged allegiance to it (in the Kamakura and early Muromachi periods) - four character idiom

noun:

• the same place; the same address; the said place

expression / godan ~す verb:

• to pass the peak (of something); to get through the most difficult part; to be over the worst (e.g. an illness) - idiom
• to cross a pass - orig. meaning

expression / adverb:

• in the end; after all is said and done; at the striped mullet's ultimate maturity (when the striped mullet is fully grown) [literal] ➜ 鯔【とど】

expression / ichidan verb:

• to pass the peak (of something); to get through the most difficult part; to be over the worst (e.g. an illness) - idiom ➜ 峠を越す
• to cross a pass - orig. meaning

expression / noun:

• fight from which neither part benefits (but a third part does); a fight between the snipe and the clam (ends in the fisherman's profit) [literal] - idiom ➜ 漁夫の利

noun:

• alliance (of the Six Kingdoms against the Qin dynasty, and of individual Kingdoms with the Qin dynasty) - four character idiom ➜ 合従・連衡
• (tactic of) making & breaking alliances (to benefit oneself as the occasion demands); resorting to alliances as a diplomatic expedient - four character idiom

noun:

• (of the) genre painting style; (of the) style of painting that depicts people's customs and manners; (of the) type of painting that denotes the life of ordinary people - four character idiom

expression:

• A single seed can eventually produce a great harvest; Even the smallest beginning can generate a greatest profit; Watch the pennies, and the pounds will look after themselves - four character idiom

noun:

• shiritori; word-chain game; word game in which players must give a word starting with the last syllable of the word given by the previous player

expression:

• it's always darkest before the dawn; the darkest hour is just before the dawn